Ole Miss Serial Killer Conference

The two and a half day conference, which regrettably ended today, was awesome. I think I know a lot more about serial killers, psychopaths, and sexual deviants than I ever knew before – perhaps too much.

The first speaker, Dr. Lawrence Simon, was a pleasure to listen to. Simon draws from his years of research working with serial rapists and killers in a maximum security prison in Florida. Simon is charismatic and a great teacher, and not without a sense of humor, something you no doubt have to have when confronted with this real ugly side of life. If you ever want to find out the kind of things that motivate these individuals and how to get information from them, then Dr. Simon should definitely be consulted/looked up.

The second speaker, Dr. Carl Jensen, who is the Director of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies at Ole Miss, was also a great teacher and clearly loves his field. Jensen addressed the significance of M.Os, rituals, and signatures with regards to interpreting crime scenes, and presented methodologies for solving crimes; Jensen worked with the FBI for 22 years.

I definitely walked away from the conference with an increased amount of fascination/intrigue, and a tremendous amount of disgust/repulsion with regards to the behavior of some of the serial offenders mentioned – the conflicting experiences that make the field so addictive.